MTV Artists

A WYSIWYG tool that amplifies musicians even more

MTV Artists

Viacom’s MTV Artists platform connects a massive artist database with a variety of applications built for global brands including MTV, VH1, CMT, and BET, as well as event brands like the VMAs. The data that lives in the Artists platform represents the latest releases, music videos, live performances, photos, and artist-specific content. The tool houses data from everyone from your favorite recently-signed local band to Beyoncé.

Happy Cog’s charge was to redesign the application user experience ensuring that a variety of users can update their artist information easily, from any device at any time. This means an indie band manager needs to be able to record a performance at a bar on her iPhone, then painlessly upload that clip to her band’s MTV Artists profile on the same small screen, likely from the road on spotty connection speeds. This also means that Viacom’s premium record label partners need to be able to manage hundreds of signed artists frictionlessly.

Industry

By redesigning the userflows in collaboration with the internal Artist product team, we were able to streamline processes, shorten steps, and reduce clicks. Autofilling a Google Map based on locations input by individual users provides a sense of immediacy and personalization. By adding critical wayfinding and directions throughout we were able to reduce support requests. Smart interactions and charming behavioral states deepens engagement. Status messages and updates alert artists to when their content has successfully passed through Viacom’s critical legal and content reviews. Finally, label partners can unlock a deeper level up site support needed to manage the sheer volume of updates they require.

Creating or claiming an artist page is seamless—no matter the size of your current fanbase.

Creating or claiming an artist page is seamless—no matter the size of your current fanbase.

Creating or claiming an artist page is seamless—no matter the size of your current fanbase.

Working in partnership with Viacom’s internal engineering team we plunged into our first Grails application build. Once the initial clickable redesign was live, we cracked open user testing to validate some of our earlier hypotheses. In many cases our UX decisions were supported in data. In cases where optimization was possible, we adjusted some of our design thinking without hacking the core of the experience information architecture. The result is a frictionless, surprisingly brief user interaction that drives return visits by artists refreshing valuable content continuously.